After I found out about Lori’s suicide, I became more determined than ever to share Christ with the girls in order to offer them genuine hope. I didn’t want more young women to end up taking their own lives. One day my coworker Laura asked me,

“Don’t you think you need to tone down all this talk about Christianity?” 

I looked at her, surprised. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, I don’t see how that’s really going to help anybody.” I paused, looking to God for a way to answer her while trying to suppress painful memories of Lori that came to mind. 

“Well, the way I look at it, sharing Christ isn’t going to hurt anybody, and if it helps even one person, then it’s worth it.” 

I developed a small library of Christian books in the gym that I encouraged the girls to check out and read. Many of these books were testimonies of young women who had become entangled in prostitution or drugs before their lives had been restored by Christ. The girls loved reading those books because they could relate to them. Many of the girls saw themselves as “hopeless cases,” so when they read about the incredible conversions of young girls similar to themselves, they were encouraged. 

A few times I actually had to break up fights between girls who were arguing over who would get to read a certain book next. They would check out one book after another, devouring them from cover to cover. The head of the correctional facility knew I was open with the girls about my faith in Jesus Christ. She said to me one day, “I don’t mind your making Christian books available to the girls or giving them Bibles. But if anyone ever complains about it, I’m going to have to talk to you.” Thankfully, the entire time I worked as Athletic Director no one protested my attempts to introduce the young women to Jesus Christ. 

I seldom saw any immediate results of my attempt to share the gospel. I fought discouragement by reminding myself that God’s Word will not return to Him void but will accomplish what He sent it to accomplish. (See Isaiah 55:10–11.) I prayed that the girls would meet other Christians who might build on what they had heard and lead them to the Lord. I reminded myself of the spiritual principle found in 1 Corinthians 3:7 that some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. I knew a lot of what I was doing in that place was seed planting so someone else could come along months, or perhaps even years, later and water the Word that was sown in their hearts. Above all, I knew I was to be faithful with the opportunities I was given and trust God to bring the increase. 

Occasionally, and excitingly, a young woman would ask me privately to lead her in a prayer of salvation. So many of the girls had a hunger to know God and be taught spiritual principles for living a victorious Christian life. Sadly, however, these young women had no opportunity to be taught or discipled; thus, they experienced very little, if any, spiritual growth. The fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark describes how the sower sows the Word and immediately Satan comes to take away the Word that was sown in their hearts. It also describes how the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful (Mark 4:19). 

In 1 Peter 2:2 new converts are instructed: “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” In observing the young women who sincerely prayed the prayer of salvation then fell away, I understood what Peter was saying. As a newborn baby must have milk for nourishment in order to grow and survive, finally becoming strong enough for solid food, so must a newborn Christian have a steady diet of God’s Word in order to grow into a mature believer. 

Though these girls seemed like hardcore criminals, they were confused, hurting young women, many of whom had been victimized from the time they were born. Many had been victims of rape and incest, having been molested by fathers, stepfathers, brothers, and the boyfriends of their mothers, among others. Some had suffered severe neglect—abandoned and left wards of the state, shuffled in and out of foster homes and orphanages. Some had been trained by their mothers to be prostitutes. 

Almost all the girls had horrible things done to them, and many of them had also done horrible things. All of them had been sent to the facility by juvenile court judges. Some had been convicted of prostitution, breaking and entering, burglary, armed robbery, drug dealing and drug possession, and, in a few cases, murder. 

The young women couldn’t help but come to the correctional facility burdened by guilt from what they had done and by hatred toward those who had hurt them. Unforgiven and unforgiving, they carried a bitterness that affected every area of their lives. They desperately needed to forgive and to be forgiven. They desperately needed to discover that they could be set free from the guilt of all that they had done. 

Yet no matter what kind of programs the government offers, no matter how many tax dollars are spent, and no matter how many experts are hired, the government cannot forgive their sin not even one. Only by the blood of Jesus can the stains of sin and guilt and shame be permanently removed. Only by being born again can a person leave the past behind and receive a new start in life. As the apostle Paul so beautifully expressed, 

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17, kjv). 

External conformity to the rules and regulations of the facility could not bring true change to the girls’ lives. At best, the girls were merely prevented from doing bad things, while the desire for those things remained. The best help the state institution could offer was what psychologists refer to as behavior modification. By implementing a system of punishment and reward, outward behavior can be modified. The results this produced were only temporary, however, and it was clear to me the girls cooperated so they could get out, but they remained the same on the inside. Once they returned to their same friends and environment, they began living as they had before. In many cases the girls got in trouble and were sent back within a few weeks or months. 

These young women needed transformation, not modification. God’s ways are higher than man’s. In Ezekiel 36:26–27 God revealed His plan to change mankind: 

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” 

God changes us on the inside! He gives us a new heart! He puts a new spirit within us! He takes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh! God does not expect us to change ourselves by outward conformity to a set of rules—God changes our desires! We no longer want to sin; rather, our desire is to please God. Paul put it this way when he wrote to the church at Philippi: 

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13, kjv). 

That is why Jesus said we must be born again—it is the only way to become a new person with old things passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17); our transgressions are removed as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Likewise, when we accept Christ as Savior and receive forgiveness for our sins, they are removed from us as if we had never sinned. We have right standing with our Father God. Paul further explains in 2 Corinthians 5:21: 

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (kjv). 

This is the good news—we can receive forgiveness and become brand-new persons! But someone has to tell those who do not know. 

“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14, kjv)

This text is an extract from the book “ECHOES OF MERCY” written by Nancy Alcorn.

We invite you to read the following article “By Divine Appointment”.